Do You Believe in Magic?
by DreamInVintage
Summary: Peter Pan AU. In which Kim is Wendy, Jared is Peter, and, of course, Paul is Tinkerbell. Features an impish, mischievous Jared and a bewildered Kim. A non-imprint story, but an awkward, I-think-I-might-like-you story. One-shot. Fluff. Jared/Kim. Paul/Rachel.


**Happy holidays, guys!**

It all starts with Rachel.

They're neighbors all through their first year of college, rooms squashed next to each other down an isolated little stub of corridor. At first Kim's got mixed feelings about her room allocation - no one's going to hammer on her door and run away, or be loud in the corridor when she's trying to sleep or study, but she's not going to be in the thick of things either. No one's going to wander by and pop in for a chat. She'd hoped going to college would mean making more friends.

As it turns out, she makes plenty.

Rachel introduces Kim to everyone who strolls down their corridor looking for her, and Kim does the same in return, albeit less frequently. Despite having an unprecedented number of new friends, Kim spends most of her time with her immediate neighbor. Rachel almost always leaves her door open, or opens it when Kim knocks.

Usually just before she knocks, actually. Kim's fairly convinced that Rachel's got some sort of psychic ability or extrasensory perception or something. She's strangely in sync with everyone, mimicking movements and facial expressions and accents.

"I'm just good with people!" says Rachel, but Kim's not so sure. She's caught Rachel laughing before the punchline of a joke a few too many times to be able to write it off as coincidence.

Occasionally she bangs on Rachel's door and gets no answer - even though Kim knows she's inside. Kim spends the better part of half a year being puzzled by this behavior, before she finally figures out that Rachel needs alone time too.

For all her friends, Rachel's never had a boyfriend (that Kim knows about, anyways). When Kim asks her about it, Rachel just laughs and says she hasn't got time. Which doesn't make sense, because Rachel spends a lot less time working and a lot more time doing nothing than Kim does, and even she's had a couple of (awkward, short lived) relationships.

Rachel's a little odd, but Kim likes her anyway, a lot, and when it comes close to the end of the year she slides a note, asking if Rachel wants to be roommates, under Rachel's door. Then she goes back to her room and tries not to listen to the sound of her own heart thumping.

Rachel knocks at Kim's door about thirty seconds later.

…

Rachel stays in their new flat during the summer break, because she hasn't got the money to go back home for summer and Christmas, and Christmas takes priority. Kim goes back to Pennsylvania and then away to Spain with her family, and comes back slightly tanner than before at the end of September. As it turns out, living with Rachel in their own little flat is almost exactly the same as living next door to just Rachel on their own little corridor, and Kim settles back into it quickly enough.

The radiator in Rachel's room bursts in late November, and to avoid anything getting wetter than it already is and herself getting cold, Rachel redistributes her stuff around the rest of the flat and her body to Kim's bed. Their landlord tells them it'll be at least a couple of weeks before it's fixed, and Kim resigns herself to a long time of getting kicked by a sleeping Rachel.

Late November, she will always remember, is when things get strange.

…

About a week into their new arrangement, Kim wakes up to see Rachel sneaking out of the room. The watch on her bedside table reads 03:10 in unwavering neon blue.

"What are you doing?"

Rachel turns to look Kim, her face an eerie white in the darkness.

"Nothing," she whispers. "Go back to sleep."

Kim resolves to wait up until Rachel comes back (because she's such a good friend), but the next thing she knows she's blinking awake, gray daylight streaming through a gap in the curtains. Rachel's sprawled out next to her, thick black hair plastered to one side of her slack face and the other half mashed into a pillow.

There's a smudge of dirt across her foot. Kim frowns.

"Rachel." She shakes Rachel by the shoulders. "Rachel, wake up. Breakfast."

In the end, Kim's so distracted by Rachel trying to steal her food that she forgets to ask about any night time escapades.

Two days later, and Kim wakes up in the middle of the night again. And again, Rachel's gone.

In the morning she finds a small, blue flower crushed into the carpet at the foot of the bed. Kim's not exactly a flower expert, but she's fairly sure it's some sort of tropical thing. Not a plant that would grow in Washington, at any rate.

Rachel acts normal all day, nothing to suggest she's been sneaking out of the house at all hours to do God-knows-what. Kim tries not to think about it - it's Rachel's business, and she can take care of herself - but she's always been a bit of a worrier, and more than that she's just really curious about where Rachel's going.

The next night, Kim's ready. She drinks about half a gallon of coffee right before bed, and pops some gum into her mouth. The chewing'll keep her awake for a little bit; the fear of falling asleep and choking to death when she swallows the gum will keep her up all night.

Midnight passes, then one am, two am. Kim's starting to think that Rachel's not planning an excursion tonight, or that maybe she knows that Kim's awake and is waiting patiently for her to fall asleep, when the bed shifts and Rachel stirs. Kim lies still and peers through half open eyes as Rachel props herself up on her elbows and checks her phone. The bed dips as Rachel gets out, and Kim snaps her eyes shut, feigning sleep. When she opens them again, Rachel's shuffling towards the door. Kim counts to ten before getting up and padding after her.

The light's a little worse in the corridor but it's still easy to make out Rachel's figure, standing almost at the end and facing the bathroom.

Kim's puzzled. She's not doing anything at all. Maybe she's sleepwalking? Then Rachel steps forward and out of sight. Kim sighs in disappointment. She's probably just gone to the restroom. Kim waits anyway, half in and half out of the bedroom, in case the peeing is a precursor to further nighttime wanderings.

And she waits.

And waits.

Fifteen minutes later and Kim's worried. What if Rachel was sleepwalking, and she's done something awful? Kim's heard about people who jump out of windows and hurt themselves while they're asleep. What if Rachel had a dizzy spell while peeing, and fell and cracked her head on the floor? It's probably best to go and check. If she walks in on a conscious Rachel, Kim can just claim she needed to pee, and all's well.

Rachel's not in the bathroom.

Kim is beyond baffled. It's very empty, white tile cold and clean, judging from what little light leaks in from the window. There's nowhere to hide. The window's latched from the inside.

She goes back and checks her room, on the off chance that Rachel went to the kitchen to get some water or something right before Kim went into the bathroom, and they somehow missed each other. (She's so tired - or she was a few minutes ago, before she had a mystery to think about - maybe she dozed off for a second while watching the corridor?)

Nothing.

She checks the kitchen, Rachel's room, their tiny living room - empty, empty, empty. The front door's locked, chain drawn across it. Unless Rachel's some sort of Houdini, she's still in the flat.

Kim goes back to her room feeling uneasy. The bed is cold when she climbs into it, and everything feels a bit too quiet. She rolls over to face the ceiling, and she waits.

She wakes to the alarm blaring and a warm body lying next to her.

There's sand in her bed.

Kim is getting to the bottom of this. Today.

…

She waits until after breakfast, because Rachel is sort of unsuspecting after she's finished eating, like a lion that's too satisfied after having feasted on gazelle to notice the pack of hyenas sneaking up behind it.

"Do you want to go to the mall?" Kim asks. She smiles and it feels tight and fake, but Rachel grins back easily enough. Kim lets Rachel go into the bedroom ahead of her, and while Rachel's busy digging out her shoes, Kim locks the door and pushes a chair against it for good measure.

"Er-" says Rachel. She looks puzzled. "What're you-"

"I followed you out of bed last night."

Rachel bites her lip. "Oh."

Kim decides to throw caution to the winds. "I know everything," she says. It always works in films.

Rachel frowns. "Define everything."

Damn it.

"Alright, I don't know everything. But I know you've been sneaking out, and I want to know where to. Unless it's private, in which case please don't tell me." She pauses. "I hope you're being safe. And that you're not doing anything in public places, because that's very illegal, and-"

Rachel flaps her hands in a desperate _ceasefire!_ motion. "I just went out to meet some friends."

"But how could you? All the doors and windows were locked from the inside."

Rachel pouts. "Kim-" She cuts herself off, shrugs. "I was going to tell you anyway. Can you wait until tonight? It's better if I show you, you won't believe me otherwise."

"I'd believe you," argues Kim.

But Rachel shakes her head. "I'll wake you up before I go, okay? I promise."

…

It takes Kim ages to get to sleep. She keeps thinking about what Rachel's secret could be, and her theories get wilder and wilder as the night goes on. Rachel's a drug dealer. Rachel's a spy. Rachel's a stripper. Rachel's a terrorist. Rachel's a DJ.

She wakes to a cool hand on her arm. "Kim. Kimmy. Time to go, come on. Put on some shoes."

Kim looks down and sure enough, Rachel's feet are stuffed into an old, scuffed pair of her trademark bright yellow Converse. Kim is silent as she slips on her own tennis shoes, an almost oppressive anticipation holding her mouth closed.

She follows Rachel down the dark corridor. Just like the previous night, Rachel stops almost at the end. Kim had thought she was standing at the bathroom door, but they've actually stopped just before it, where the bathroom wall juts out a little. Rachel knocks on it.

"What're you-"

Someone knocks back.

Kim likes to think she's quite brave, but she's not prepared for this. The only thing that stops her screaming - _because there's a person in the walls_, _this is not okay_! - is the fact that Rachel's obviously okay with it, and from having observed her for nearly a full year, Kim can say with close to one hundred percent certainty that Rachel's got neither the skills nor the inclination to brick someone up alive.

Rachel turns to her and grins. Kim doesn't think an evil witch would show so many teeth, so that's out too.

"Right, so - you're going to think I'm insane, but we're going through this wall here." Rachel runs her finger down the join of the bathroom wall and the jut. "Just hold on to my waist, I've never done this before - with someone else, I mean - and I don't want to lose you."

She's right, Kim does think Rachel's bat-shit crazy. But there's no one around to laugh at her, and someone knocked and it's almost three am and it feels like something could happen. So Kim wraps her arms around Rachel, holds on tight and closes her eyes.

Rachel shuffles forward and Kim shuffles with her and she feels terribly, terribly cold, the kind of cold that feels like burning and her bones feel thin and hollow like she's been sick with the flu, like she's too brittle and could just snap in half.

Then, Rachel's hands are on hers, prying them from her body. "Kimmy, get off."

Kim opens her eyes. They're in the bathroom. She lets go.

They're in the bathroom, only it's back to front, its flipped, its reversed, like she's stepped through a mirror.

They're in the bathroom, only it's back to front and there's a boy sprawled out in the bathtub and one perched on the sink.

"Um," says Kim articulately.

…

The boy in the tub waves cheerfully.

He's shirtless

"Hello!"

His smile is bordering on a smirk and Kim can tell he's trouble, like one of those boys at school she'd never sit next to out of fear of getting detention through proximity alone. The boy's eyes are mischievous and twinkling with excitement. Then Kim makes the mistake of moving her eyes down his body. He's _ripped_, (seriously, what kind of drugs is he taking?) and Kim feels her mouth go dry at the sight.

He's still shirtless.

His abs looked carved out of stone.

The boy sitting in the sink eyes Kim curiously and gets up to hug Rachel. It's a very friendly hug, thinks Kim. A friendly hug that lasts maybe a little too long. (See? Kim's perceptive like that.) He's also shirtless. And he also looks like a bronze sculpture.

"Kim, that's Jared," Rachel nods at the boy in the tub, "and this is Paul. Paul, Jared, this is Kimmy. You know, my roommate."

"Hello." Kim waves awkwardly. "I don't really know what's going on."

"Just a bit of magic," says Rachel dismissively.

Kim's a bit wary of getting too close to the two (very shirtless) strangers - Jared and Paul, she reminds herself; They're Rachel's friends, probably not murderers - but there's a strange prickling in her head and her vision's blurring at the edges, so she wobbles towards the bath and sits down on the edge. There's thumping as Jared scrambles down to her end of the tub.

"Alright, Kim?" he asks kindly. This close, Kim can see that Jared has nice shoulders – broad and masculine and obviously strong. And a swirling face, but that's most likely a problem on Kim's end rather than Jared's. "Is this all a bit of a surprise to you?"

Kim nods, still kind of stuck on the whole shoulders thing.

"Did Rachel not explain anything?"

Kim shakes her head. Jared turns his head to glare at Rachel and lets out a long, drawn-out sigh.

"I didn't know how!" defends Rachel.

Jared turns back to Kim. "I'll give you the basics, Kimmy. We're in Neverland - don't look at me like that, I didn't name it - which is like where you're from, but better; I'm immortal-" he scrunches up his face "-sort of, and Paul is a fairy."

Kim looks Paul up and down. He doesn't look like a fairy. He looks like an underwear model.

"Er," says Kim.

Paul mutters something, but Kim can't quite make out the words. "Sorry?"

"Shut up, Paul," says Rachel, plopping herself down in Paul's lap. "He can be a bit moody and rude, but you'll get used to it. Nicotine withdrawal and all that."

"Um, yeah," Kim says uncertainly. A chain-smoker isn't exactly what she has in mind when she thinks of fairies, but hey, why not?

"Right," says Jared."Fabulous introductions, shall we get going?"

Her vision no longer fuzzy, Kim can see the three of them looking to her for an answer. She freezes, unsure of where they're going or what she should say or what's even happening really. Rachel senses her dilemma.

"We're going to Ghost Mountain, by the way." Rachel offers.

"Oh." That doesn't sound like something Kim would be interested in. She's having enough trouble with the mirror image bathroom.

"It'll be fun," says Jared, "there's loads to show you on the way. How about it, up for an adventure?"

Kim falters.

"You don't have to," says Rachel, worry leaking into her tone.

"You're going," says Jared.

…

Jared leads them all out of the bathroom window and onto slippery, flat rocks.

They're on a lake. A sharp cliff borders the water on one side, and Kim can see winding lines where feet have worn a path from top to bottom. The other side looks vague and insubstantial and Kim turns away, because looking at it makes her feel funny.

She wonders if Rachel might be a drug dealer after all.

The sky is almost the same blue as her highlighter and the sun is hot on Kim's back, nothing like the weather outside her bedroom window. It's all very strange, but Kim passed every one of her units last year, even if she did have to have an extended chat with one of her professors before he agreed that she could continue on with the course - she's a capable young woman and she won't be phased by this. The first step is to get a grip on the situation.

"Where is Neverland?"

Rachel and Paul exchange glances and Kim's glad to see she's not the only one who's confused.

"What do you mean?" asks Paul.

"What's the nearest country?" The others continue to look bewildered. Kim's not particularly good at geography, but she gives it a guess anyway. "Are we near Africa? Or wait, no, Amsterdam? Are we near Amsterdam?"

Jared looks blank. "Africa? Never heard of it."

"It's magic," says Rachel. "Neverland, not Africa," she adds, before Jared can ask.

"You said that already." It's not that Kim doesn't believe in magic - she does a bit, she's still got that secret little hope that maybe, somewhere, things are a bit different from factories and eating toast in the morning and coming home at five o'clock and going to sleep and there being such a big divide between dreams and life - but it's squashed under years of telling herself that there's no such thing. Kim can't remember the last time she wished for something she didn't think she could get. The idea of a whole world of magic is a little overwhelming.

"What kind of magic?"

"Just the normal kind, I think," says Rachel. "What kinds are there?"

Kim splutters. "I'm not the expert here! I don't even believe in magic." She says it reflexively. It's not true, magic's the best explanation she's got for what's happening.

Paul doubles over, hacking.

"Smokers' cough," he says, when it passes enough that he's able to talk. He massages his chest and Rachel rubs his back sympathetically. "I'll be alright in a minute."

Something else occurs to Kim. "How do you guys know each other?" she asks, gesturing from Rachel to the others.

Rachel opens her mouth to answer, but Jared interrupts.

"Let's walk and talk, shall we?" he suggests. "The tide's rising."

Kim looks down and sure enough, there's water lapping at the rubber of her soles.

…

Jared leads them up the cliff face - up close it's less sheer, the winding path easier to tackle than Kim had imagined. At the top there's long dry grass and reeds all gently swaying, but no breeze. When she turns to look back down at the lake it's very blue, very glittering, and much further down than she knows she's climbed.

This high up she can see that beyond the lake lies yet more blue, bigger and hazier, and beyond that the sea stretches all the way out to the horizon.

"Come on," says Jared. "Let's go down to the beach." He starts down a dusty track that looks to follow the curve of the lake and Kim follows, Paul and Rachel in tow.

"Long story short," says Jared as their shoes slap over the dry earth, "My shadow got loose and I thought 'Ok, let's be responsible-'"

"I told him to be responsible," says Paul.

"-and I went down to look for it," continues Jared. He stops walking for a moment and turns to peer at Rachel. "Where did I end up again?"

"Raleigh," says Rachel. "In North Dakota. I was at my cousin's house, he was having a party," she explains to Kim.

"Did you come through the wall?"

"Nope," says Jared. "I flew there. I never usually go over, I don't like it. I can feel myself getting wrinkles and the urge to open a savings account."

"Anyway, long story short," says Rachel, "I went out to find the cat-"

"Sounds like a wild party, Rach," Kim interjects, because she can't help herself.

Jared huffs out a surprised laugh and Paul looks vaguely amused.

Rachel sticks her tongue out at Kim. "_After_ the party. I went out to find the cat _after_ the party. And instead I found Jared sitting on top of the garden shed and drinking someone's leftover beer."

"And then we had pizza," says Jared wistfully.

"Hawaiian," nods Rachel, ducking to avoid a branch. Kim hadn't noticed, but the reeds have given way to close growing trees and the earth under her feet feels heavier and cooler and like it might be on a downward tilt.

"Did you find the shadow?"

Rachel shrugs. "It came down to the kitchen for a bit, but we couldn't really be bothered to catch it. It jumped out of the window and into the neighbor's garden."

"Haven't seen it since," says Jared cheerily.

It's not right, thinks Kim - she'd miss her shadow. Kim imagines that if she'd been there instead of Rachel, she'd have caught the thing and sewn it back on. Or probably duct-taped it, she knows from experience that she's not the best at sewing.

"It's not so bad," says Jared, like he knows what Kim's thinking. "I feel at least ten pounds lighter for it."

The path widens slightly and through the trees Kim catches a flash of horizon, closer than before.

"So you flew over," she says, and she tries not to think about how unbelievable that is. "But that's not how Rachel and I got here?"

"No," agrees Rachel. "We came through a corner. You know, because corners are magic."

"What?" Kim asks. She wonders if this is common knowledge, and everyone just forgot to tell her.

"The one near the bathroom's the only corner in the whole flat that's not got furniture shoved against," says Rachel, and Kim ponders this. She's never paid any attention to it, but Rachel's right.

"Why are they magic though?"

Rachel makes a face. "Corners are where things meet. I don't know - ask Jared, he told me."

"Well Paul told me," argues Jared.

"Paul?" Kim asks.

Paul shrugs. "'s just magic," he slurs.

That's about when Kim realizes that she's in the company of three utterly useless individuals.

"You can't just say 'It's magic' and leave it," she argues.

"I think you'll find," says Jared, "that that's sort of the point of magic."

The trees have started to thin out and the ground is getting sandier with every step. After another two dozen meters they emerge from between birch trees like pillars, and onto a beach.

This lake's a bit bigger than the first one, with a recognizable cliff face bordering one side, and a passage out to sea between rock pile walls on the other. In the distance rises a massive dark peak.

"That's Ghost Mountain," says Paul, and Kim gapes.

And ponders.

"Why couldn't we see it from higher up? From on top of the cliff? It wasn't there before."

"That's why it's called Ghost Mountain," says Jared. "Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don't."

"I thought it was called Ghost Mountain because it was haunted."

Jared's face falls. "Oh, maybe. Do you think so? Shit."

"I'm sure it's not," says Kim, but only out of politeness. "Haven't you ever been up there?"

Paul shakes his head. "It only appeared a couple weeks ago."

"Oh," says Kim. She can't quite work out where the mountain is, relative to where they are, but it seems far. "It's miles away."

"Yeah, I was hoping we could get a lift," says Jared, indicating the empty lake, and that's when it clicks for Kim - they're in a harbor. "But obviously Black has somewhere better to be."

Kim imagines a blob of black captaining a ship. It's not the strangest thing she can see happening at this point.

"We could fly there instead," suggests Rachel slyly.

Kim's heart skips a beat. "Please," she blurts out, unable to stop herself.

"Paul?"

Paul shrugs. "Yeah, we could. Ok, so - Kim, think happy thoughts. Then say the magic words and you're done. Here, watch. Think happy thoughts." He winks at Rachel. "Zap, I can fly."

As soon as the last word leaves his mouth he's being drawn off the ground, like some invisible force is pulling him up by the shoulders.

"Zap, I can fly," says Rachel, and she's floating next to Paul.

Right, thinks Kim. Happy thoughts. Laughing with her friends. Summer holidays. Being asked out by Chris in middle school. And then breaking up with him a week later. Playing the violin at the school assembly that one time and everyone clapping.

Her feet remain firmly stuck to the ground.

"Oh crap," says Jared. "I think you might need a bit of help. Paul, release the fairy dust!" Jared does some kind of gesture that makes his ridiculous biceps flex, and Kim really would pay more attention to that, except she's too worried that fairy dust is some kind of code name for crack or pot.

"I told you not to call it that," says Paul. To Kim, he says, "This is a bit gross, sorry." He comes to hover over Kim and starts swatting at her jacket. Fine clouds of dust puff up into the air and Kim chokes and coughs.

"Give it another go now," says Jared, once the cloud has settled. "The fairy dust should help."

Paul punches Jared in the shoulder. "Stop."

"But that's what it is! And it's much more marketable than years of cigarette ash, I never wash this jacket!" Jared jokes

"Years of cigarette ash! Who is it who keeps - enabling me? 'Don't quit completely, Paul, just cut back! What if we need the extra magic?' What if I need my fucking lungs, Jared?"

There's dead silence. Kim takes a teeny step back, just in case Paul directs his sudden anger in Kim's direction and changes her into a footstool or something.

Jared raises an eyebrow. "Someone's in a mood today."

"Sorry," says Paul, holding up his hands placatingly. "Sorry, I just haven't had a smoke for a while. Kim, you should be okay to go now."

And she is.

It doesn't take Kim long to get accustomed to moving through the air - she ends up being able to do exactly what she wants to, with only the most vaguely formed thought.

"Good, isn't it?" asks Rachel, and Kim grins until her face hurts.

They swoop over the rock wall of the harbor and then there's nothing but empty blue moving below them as they make a beeline for Ghost Mountain. Paul and Jared are jostling each other up ahead, and Rachel grabs Kim's hand and pulls her upwards.

She's always imagined clouds to feel fluffy and solid, but they don't feel like anything, except cold and not quite wet. Kim and Rachel go right through them, no different to air.

Something wraps around Kim's ankle, pulling her back. "You're missing all the fish," says Jared.

They spot a group of dolphins and fly alongside a shoal of porpoises engaging in a very intricate maritime dance. Kim watches them until she's too far away to see them clearly.

A little while later they come across a small boat. It's drifting idly across the waves, like whoever's captaining it has grown bored and sloped off for an extended tea break.

"Jared!" yells Paul. "Isn't that Jacob?"

Jared flaps his hands at them to get them to slow down. "Let's stop for a minute."

Kim follows as the others swoop toward the boat. Before she can get close enough to land, a scowling figure emerges from the cabin. It's not a blob of black captaining the ship, but a boy. Also shirtless. Of course.

"Don't," the boy calls up to them reproachfully. "Last time you capsized us. And you broke my wrist." He holds up his right arm, and Kim can see the bright orange cast extending over it.

"It's just sprained," says Jared, but all the same he hovers at arm's length from the boat. The boy - Jacob - eyes Kim intently, frowning, and Kim feels a little unnerved.

"This is Jake. And Rachel's roommate, Kim, remember? Kimmy, this is Jacob Black," Jared introduces.

"Hi, Kim."

Kim moves so that she can take Jacob's outstretched hand - but being this close to land (of a sort) is making flying strangely difficult, and gravity snaps her down onto the deck of the boat.

Jacob puts out a hand to help her up and he's wearing a lopsided grin, like he's fighting the urge to laugh. Jared and Paul have no such qualms and their cackles soon attract a flock of seagulls, under the mistaken impression that their kin are calling to them. It takes Jacob ordering the seagulls to fuck off to get them to disperse, and even then they circle ominously nearby, waiting.

Jacob shakes Kim's hand once she's up on her feet. "Nice to meet you. How's it going?"

"Weird," says Kim. She beams at Jared. "Good weird."

"We're going to Ghost Mountain," says Rachel.

Something buzzes and trills and Jacob extracts his phone from the front pocket of his jeans. He huffs out a laugh at whatever's on the screen and starts tapping out a reply.

"Do you want to come?" asks Jared.

Jacob keeps typing.

"Jake."

"What?" asks Jacob, glancing up for a second before going back to his phone.

"Do you want to come with us to Ghost Mountain?"

"Hmm?"

Jared lets out a strangled sound and darts forward to wrench the phone from between Jacob's fingers. He pitches it into the air and it soars in a graceful arc before hitting the water.

"Thank you, Jared." says Jacob. He doesn't sound very grateful.

Jared looks regretful for a split second before his expression clears. "Serves you right. You should look at people while they're talking to you."

"I was texting Leah!"

Jared rolls his eyes so viciously that Kim thinks they might fall out of his head. "You could've waited thirty seconds. Bad form, Jakey."

Jacob scowls.

To Kim, Jared says, "You haven't met Leah. She lives on Cat Island, she's their King, basically. Democratically elected-"

"-She's their president," corrects Paul.

"They carry her around on a thingy, wait on her hand and foot." Rachel looks slightly envious.

Kim's not sure if they're screwing with her or not. Cat servants don't sound very plausible, but then again, neither does accessing a secret world through the bathroom wall, and that's definitely something that happened.

A text alert sounds and Jacob stills, hand in the air like he's asking for quiet.

"My phone!" He dashes to the starboard side of the boat and peers down at the water. "Oh, brilliant."

Kim joins him to look curiously over the edge, and starts. There's a fat crocodile gazing lazily up at him, mouth open so that Kim can see the phone jammed between its teeth. It almost looks like it's grinning.

Jared is in hysterics.

"Laugh away," says Jacob. "First you broke my wrist, now you've lost my phone. I don't know any of those numbers by heart, you asshole!"

As he's talking, the crocodile snaps its jaw shut and turns away from the boat. "Hey, no!" cries Jacob. "Man the decks! Quil!"

A bedraggled looking boy staggers out from the cabin. "What?"

"Sorry for waking you," says Jacob. "But we need to go, now."

Quil (_odd name_) groans, looking desperately miserable. "Alright, fine. You're making me dinner for this." He heads to the stern and Kim can hear clanking and an exclamation of "Son of a fucking gerbil, this is heavy!" which she thinks means the anchor's being hoisted.

"Right," says Jared, having sobered slightly. "We'll see you later, Jakey, yeah?"

Jacob nods agreeably. "See you at dinner. If you lock me out again I'll hate you forever. I'm being serious this time."

Jared mock salutes and pushes away from the boat.

"Nice to meet you," says Kim.

"You too," smiles Jacob. It seems genuine – his eyes are crinkled around the corners.

"Kimmy!" shouts Jared, and that's when she realizes the boat's moving. She thinks happy thoughts - flying, watching dolphins jump -

"Zap, I can fly."

Nothing.

"Zap, I can fly!" Still nothing.

"Oh well," says Jacob. "Follow that crocodile!"

The boat lurches forward with unexpected speed, and Quil's face appears from behind a sail. "Shit, Jake, my head's splitting, can you not?"

"Kidnap!" screams Jared from the sky. As one, the flock of seagulls makes a sharp turn towards him. Jared seems not to notice. "Bye Kimmy, it was nice knowing you!"

"Leave her at the mountain, will you, Jake?" yells Paul, voice growing quieter with every word, as he flies away with Jared and Rachel.

Kim watches as the seagulls rush to Jared, his swearing mingling with the noise of their cries. Paul and Rachel are doubled over laughing, clinging onto each other for support. The scene gets smaller and smaller as the boat sails further and further away.

Jacob's grinning when he turns to Kim. "Don't worry, I'll drop you off after we get my phone back, okay?"

There's nothing Kim can do but agree.

They follow the periodically ringing crocodile for a good twenty minutes before it dives out of sight and fails to resurface.

"Fuck," says Jacob levelly.

He makes Kim a cup of milky tea and fills his own mug up with water - Quil refuses the offer of a beverage, instead sending Jacob a withering look and declaring he's going back to bed - and they sit and sip their drinks out on the deck.

"D'you like it here?" asks Jacob. "It's nice, isn't it?"

"It is," agrees Kim. "A bit confusing though, the three that I came with are horrible at explaining."

Jacob eyes her speculatively. "What do you need explaining?"

Kim thinks. There's quite a lot of things that she suspects doesn't actually have an explanation, more still that's probably better off without one.

"Well," says Kim eventually. "Doesn't anyone here want to grow up? Does anyone even get old here?"

"That's not really how it works," says Jacob - slowly, like he's deliberating over every word. "My friend Mike lives here, and he is quite old - don't tell him I said that, he's very sensitive - but he's not really grown up. He doesn't have to grow up, because he's here, see?"

Kim does see, sort of. If she squints.

"Doesn't he want to though?"

"None of us do. Except, I don't think Jared will be here much longer." Jacob doesn't pause to let Kim ask why, but she doesn't need to. "He used to be quite nervous, you know?"

Kim feels an extra bit of fondness for Jared. She used to be quite nervous too.

"Everything he worried about was just normal stuff, but I think he worried about it a bit more than most people. You know, the 'What am I going to do with my life?' stuff. It's not the same as not wanting to grow up." Jacob furrows his brow. "I don't think he even cares about getting wrinkles anymore."

"Why are you here?" asks Kim. "You don't have to say if you don't want to," she adds hastily.

The boat bobs and Jacob gives a little shrug. "I just like things how they are. I like having fun, and I don't want things to change. I think it's okay to keep things the same for a bit longer."

It doesn't sound too unreasonable to Kim. She wants to ask about Jared, but she doesn't, and Jacob doesn't volunteer any information either. Kim's tea has gone a bit cold, but she finishes it anyway and lets Jacob haul her to her feet.

"Come on, the others are probably waiting for you."

It's not until Jacob's steering them across the waves that he broaches the subject again.

"I'm glad you came along," he says. "I think you'll be good for Jared."

…

Jacob drops Kim off at the foot of Ghost Mountain - or as near to the foot as it's possible to get, considering Ghost Mountain rises up out of the sea - and he and a newly awakened Quil wave as their boat sails away. Jared, Rachel, and Paul are already there, squabbling over what appears to be an endlessly complicated game of rock-paper-scissors.

"This is us waiting for you," says Paul.

Up close, the mountain is a shimmering dark mass, winking in and out of view. Kim tries to protest, because she's obviously not the most athletic person in the world, but Jared insists that they make the ascent on foot.

"It's cheating otherwise, you won't get the same sense of achievement. And besides, Kimmy'll just face-plant into the side of Ghost Mountain if we try to fly up."

Rachel snorts and Kim vows to push her off the peak.

The hike is awful, and Kim is sure she's going to die after the first hundred feet. Paul is struggling the most, pausing every hundred meters or so to lean on his knees and wheeze heavily. They're halfway to the top when he stops and refuses to go any further.

"I think I'm dying."

The mountain flickers out of sight, but Kim's used to it by now. She's clearly standing on something, even if she can't see what that something is. It's a lot weirder to see the other three posed with legs propped up on invisible rocks than it is to look down and see nothing beneath her own feet.

"Oh, come on, Paul," encourages Jared. He's looking annoyingly perky, though his sweat-matted hair contradicts his seemingly effortless state.

Paul ignores Jared and instead gets gingerly onto his back and shuts his eyes.

"Go on without me."

"Come on," tries Kim. "We're almost there." They're not really, she's just trying to be encouraging. Paul sticks up his middle finger in response.

It's Rachel who gets Paul to move. She flops down onto her stomach next to him, wriggles in close and whispers something that makes Paul sit up.

"Fine, let's get this over with."

He holds his hands out and Rachel obediently heaves and tugs him to his feet. Paul takes a single step forwards (backwards, he's facing down the mountain) and Jared starts clapping.

"You can do it, Paul-master! We believe in you!"

Paul rolls his eyes and makes to start for the peak, but promptly trips over a rock instead. He doesn't quite hit the ground, probably due to some kind of secret fairy magic.

"Great technique," says Kim, and Jared looks delighted, laughing.

"Idiots," Paul says, but he says it fondly, and Kim feels strangely pleased.

It was light when they started, but as they climb, the sky darkens. Kim's got the idea that it's not so much related to time passing as it is to do with the mountain itself. She suspects that if they were to climb back down, it would still be light.

When they finally reach the summit, it's night, and Kim's bubbling over with disbelief. The sky is huge, an expanse so open that she imagines she can see the curve in it. It's inked a deep blue-black, pinpricks of light scattered across the whole thing.

"Maybe there are ghosts. If all I could do was watch the world forever, I'd definitely hang here to do it."

"Deep," says Rachel, turning tail to flee when she sees Paul sneaking up on her. "Kimmy, save me!" Her yells echo across the rocks before falling abruptly and persistently silent.

"Well," says Jared, following a few minutes of dead quiet, "Either Paul killed her, or they've got their tongues down each other's throats. Probably best just to leave them to it either way."

He sits down on the nearest flat rock and pats the space beside him. "It's cold. We should probably huddle together for warmth."

It seems like the sensible thing to do. Kim settles in next to Jared and tilts her head backwards to look up at the stars. She wonders if they're the same ones that she can see from her window at home, when they're visible.

"Stars are old." She blurts out.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kim sees Jared twist to face her.

"Thanks for that. Good to know."

"No, but I mean - they're old, but look how bright they are. They're not boring."

"Are you trying to counsel me with half-baked metaphors?" Kim can hear Jared's grin wrapped around the words.

"No," says Kim, but she very carefully doesn't look at him.

There's a faint whistling, and it makes Kim shudder. She's not sure if it's the wind or Rachel or Paul or maybe even ghosts, and she tucks herself closer to Jared.

"I'm not scared of getting boring," says Jared, after a while. "I'm never going to be boring."

"But then what's so bad about growing up?"

Jared grimaces. "Lots of things. You have to be responsible. You work in an office. Things start to sag."

"I think sagging's a little way off," Kim objects. "It's good to be responsible. I like being able to handle things."

"It's awful," says Jared darkly. "The more stuff you handle, the better you get at it. And then people expect you to be even more responsible."

"I think that's sort of the point," says Kim. "Are you really going to stay here forever?"

"Yes," confirms Jared. "I absolutely refuse to age past twenty." He buries his face in his knees so that his "but I know I'm going to," comes out muffled.

Kim rubs soothing circles onto his back. "It's not so bad. You can do a lot more stuff when you're older. Travel. See the world."

"I can do that now," retorts Jared, and Kim can't really argue with that.

Jared's butt gets sore sitting on the rock, so he makes Kim stumble around in the dark until they can find a smooth, unoccupied bit of summit to stretch out on. Kim lets Jared point out constellations, even though she's pretty sure that Jared's just making them up.

"That's the unicorn. And there's the toucan, can you see it?"

"Not really."

They're pressed close, calves and knees and thighs and arms and shoulders, and for the second time that night, Kim's got the feeling that something's about to happen. This time, though, it's the ordinary kind. The kind she gets before someone leans in to kiss her.

Jared elbows her in the ribs instead, then laughs maniacally, screaming, "Gotcha!"

Kim's busy trying to get her breath back when she feels fingers snaking between her own. Jared squeezes her hand and Kim squeezes back, and when she rolls over to look, Jared's smile is too big for his face.

"When are you coming to visit again?" he asks, and the way he says it is casual, but the way he looks at Kim isn't.

"Tomorrow," says Kim, but then something occurs to her. "I don't know if I'll be able to come without Rachel."

"Probably not," says Jared. "Rachel's a little bit magic, I think. You live together, anyway, so it's not a problem."

Kim chews on her bottom lip. "Rachel's going away in three days. Christmas holidays start."

"Oh."

Kim nudges Jared in silent apology. She hasn't done anything wrong, except be the least magic, most ordinary person ever, but she's sorry anyway. Jared squeezes her hand tighter, then drags her down to the ground, and then complains about how Kim's made him get dirt on his clothes.

…

The next night, Rachel tries to show Kim how to get to Neverland, but try as she might, Kim just can't do it, can't see how it's done. She gives up eventually and lets Rachel lead them through the bathroom wall. They take a trip to Cat Island, and Kim learns that Leah is a girl ("You said she had long black hair, and it's called Cat Island, what was I supposed to think?") and that Jacob's in charge of naming all new discoveries ("Which is why everywhere sounds so crap.")

On Sunday night Rachel goes out to say goodbye to everyone who she's going to miss for the next month, and Kim goes with her. When Monday rolls around, Rachel hugs Kim goodbye and Kim hugs back, and then she goes to sort out her own packing. She's heading for Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

It's easy enough to fall into the routine of being at home. She eats toast for breakfast. Her mom leaves for work at eight every morning, and her dad comes home at seven. Rachel feels far away, and Jared and Paul and Jacob feel even further.

…

She wakes to someone knocking at her window. When she draws the curtain back, she sees Jared, face squashed against the glass so that Kim can't help but laugh. She pushes the window up and sticks her head out.

"Alright, Jared?"

"I've missed you."

Kim's a little taken aback, but mostly she's very happy. "I've missed you too."

"Feel like going on an adventure? Apparently the old shadow's been spotted around Ohio."

Kim thinks. Ohio's not that far, not if they're going to be flying. "Are we going to be flying?"

"Oh, just in it for that, are we?" pouts Jared.

"No," says Kim quietly. "No, not at all."

She pulls on a pair of jeans and her shoes, and grabs a hoodie.

Jared beams. "Now hurry up. I nagged Paul into giving me some fairy dust, just in case."

But Kim doesn't think she'll need it. She takes Jared's arm, thinks of linked fingers and impossibly bright grins, and steps out into the night.

**Thanks for reading! Please, drop a review:). **

**Kthxbai.**


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